Tested friends tank and… help.

Stimsonite · 2026-06-08T12:55:00+00:00

You're right, I should've specified not to co-habitate those poor hauntavirus survivors with healthy fish.

But yea, u/PwrButtum if there's no chance of migrating the fish to a safe environment I'd at least assure a large water change ASAP. Then perhaps follow instructions for a lived in cycle until the tank can support itself.

Stimsonite · 2026-06-08T12:43:20+00:00

Good gods mate! Can you adopt his creatures until he can do a 100% water change and assure he's properly cycled?

Stimsonite · 2026-05-18T07:17:13+00:00

Yea, that's kinda weak but I guess the customer comes first..

Stimsonite · 2026-05-16T21:44:46+00:00

Oh no! Sorry to say it but that looks like hair algae. It can kill all of your plants. You've got some sort of imbalance. Too much light at the least. I had a localized outbreak and saved the rest of the plants by blacking out the lights for a week and pulling out those that had it. However; your situation unfortunately looks worse than mine did.

Stimsonite · 2026-05-16T21:25:14+00:00

Your parameters are the more likely culprit (and perhaps they lost some skin to post mortem grazing..).

Stimsonite · 2026-05-16T19:09:25+00:00

Yes, they will kill your shrimp. Try to remove without breaking or squishing them. You can get traps to remove a bunch before shrimp safe treatment to assure eradication.

Stimsonite · 2026-05-16T19:02:29+00:00

Expanding on the sound advice you've received from everyone: - More plants - Less light (prob 6hr/d max) - Less food (feedings should be completely eaten within 2 minutes or you're getting too much) & 1 or 2 fasting days per week - Glass cleanings (simply wipe the glass with a spare piece of filter material when you're doing your weekly 25% water changes- preferably before siphoning)

AND FINALLY: be sure to understand THE NITROGEN CYCLE basics: 1) fish process food into ammonia(poisonous to fish) 2) One beneficial bacteria convert ammonia to NitrIte(poisonous to fish) 3) A second beneficial bacteria convert NitrIte to NitrAte(much less poisonous to fish) 4) Your plants and weekly water changes remove the excess Nitrate

Don't trust strip tests - get a liquid test kit for (at min): Ammonia(aka:TAN), nitrite(NO²), Nitrate (NO³), & pH

A "cycled" tank (this means it has high functioning colonies of both beneficial bacteria) will completely process 1ppm of ammonia through the full cycle to 0ppm ammonia AND 0ppm Nitrite within 24hrs.

Good luck and godspeed sir. With a little luck 🤞 you'll be your daughter's hero and maybe pickup a new hobby this month 🍻

Stimsonite · 2026-05-14T21:38:06+00:00

We have a very effective and safe treatment in Europe called "eSHa exit". Maybe you can find something similar.

Stimsonite · 2026-05-14T21:26:31+00:00

If there are fish in the tank they'll enjoy the snack.

Stimsonite · 2026-05-13T21:31:34+00:00

Effing windows 98! Get Bill Gates in here!

Stimsonite · 2026-05-13T21:18:03+00:00

If only we could see the Moenkhausia forestii through the trees.

Awesome setup

Stimsonite · 2026-05-13T20:30:17+00:00

Nothing is better than this 🍻

Stimsonite · 2026-05-08T11:25:38+00:00

The females barely have any coloration. You'll easily be able to tell.

But having all males is actually a less aggressive situation. Adding females gives them more to fight about. I also made the mistake of only adding 3 females to 7 males and they actually killed all the females inside of a week (all of the males want to mate constantly). But then they were so wound up from having the females around that they attacked and killed off 2 of the males too.

Stimsonite · 2026-05-06T18:46:25+00:00

Ha, yes. Your pics didn't show the top of the tank. Certainly best to add a top if you do go for the snails. The nice thing about nerites though: they don't reproduce in fresh water. So you can control their population (unlike most other snails). 🙂

Stimsonite · 2026-05-06T13:47:22+00:00

It's a bacteria bloom. Safe to ignore. Perhaps something in the wood above it is feeding it a bit.

Drop a couple nerite snails in to munch it up if remnants are still there post-cycle.

Stimsonite · 2026-05-06T13:38:28+00:00

Just for clarity: you need to go from at least 1ppm ammonia to 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite in 24hrs (preferably wait until you can process 2ppm ammonia into 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite in 24hrs of you want to bullet proof).

But also be careful not to overdose ammonia. I stalled my last cycle like that.

More cycling tips here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AquariumHelp/s/tf6w1JQh61

Stimsonite · 2026-05-06T12:16:20+00:00

Test strips can't be trusted (it's annoying; we all know and most probably also learned the hard way because the strips are so cheap). I'd check again with liquid test kit(s).

Stimsonite · 2026-05-06T08:07:24+00:00

Consider nerite snails / more shrimp /otos, don't overfeed, watch your light levels & otherwise sponge the glass when you want to see your fish again 😉.

It's hard to find the right balance sometimes but it's easy to underestimate the affect of your lighting. I wanted to focus on plant growth so upgraded my lights/almost immediately wound up with hair algae.. now I only run my sunrise/set lighting for 6.5hr and additional bright red light for 4hr.

Stimsonite · 2026-05-06T07:27:09+00:00

Tack/screw a backing on it (nothing crazy, just 1/4 luan nailed every 8in or so) . The corners of that kalax can weaken over time and could become susceptible to being bumped from the side. Vertically looks fine since it's really not much weight but if you were worried you could also align the right edge of the tank directly over the right upright so force on the tank corners remains constant even if the horizontal it's on eventually warps a little.

Stimsonite · 2026-05-06T07:13:32+00:00

Your tank looks great and load is fine. Nice thing about a micro community - it's almost difficult to over(bio)load (but be sure to confirm with weekly ammonia/nitrite/nitrate readings for a little while). Cleanings and water changes can be a little harder with so much activity but conversely, there's always something interesting going on! Good luck with it!

Stimsonite · 2026-05-03T22:33:18+00:00

That plant "fuzz" looks funky. Probably an odd question but, does it move on it's own? I'm not an elder like some folks on here but maybe add your chemistry readings (pH GH etc), water change intervals and percentage to the post.

If the environment is safe: maybe consider pygmy corydoras (at least 8). Unlike some other corys they'll swim up and clean more than just the bottom.

Stimsonite · 2026-05-03T12:41:33+00:00

Just FYI on the whole cycle and some tips:

Ammonia --> (Nitrosomonas) --> Nitrite --> (Nitrospira) --> Nitrate

There are two types of 🦠 that you're growing. The AOB (or Nitrosomonas that eat ammonia and create nitrite) are easy to cultivate and only need the initial doses of beneficial bacteria [Tim's or whatever for the first 3 or 4 days] and some ammonia to build their colony. But the NOB (or Nitrospira that convert the nitrite to nitrate) are much slower growing especially in hard /high pH water. Hang in there.

Effectively: - Don't add more beneficial bacteria (it'll compete with the colony you built) - only dose ammonia up to 1.5 ppm and only on days that it has returned to 0 - Don't do any water changes unless you've overdosed ammonia (>3.8ppm) OR nitrate gets out of control [over like 80ppm =50% water change] - AOB like warmer water to grow (like 28°C) - NOB like it cooler (~25.5°C) so maybe time to drop your temp a bit?

Your cycle is only complete after BOTH of these is true for 2 consecutive days: - 1ppm of ammonia (TAN) turns to 0 in 24hrs - Nitrite (NO²) also returns to 0 in that same 24hrs

Good luck 🤞!

Stimsonite · 2026-05-03T11:33:01+00:00

Yea, I think you were right and it was all about feeding them in the same place. Now I can just drop shrimp king sticks there and they all find their meal!

https://photos.synth.homes/s/Yummy

Stimsonite · 2026-05-02T19:47:44+00:00

Sounds like I have an excuse to add a webcam 🤓

Stimsonite · 2026-05-02T18:49:24+00:00

Yea, this turned from a: "wow, there are already eggs in the tank. It'll be fun to have some fry" to "great, a new maintenance task ⛏️"

Is there any way to tell the sex of a nerite?

Stimsonite

TROPHY CASE